Relationships between physiological and behavioral responses of goat bucks in mating season

Abstract

-The objective of this study was to determine the sexual parameters in young bucks with different sexual activity and the effect of experience (age) on sexual parameters in bucks. Fifteen young, sexually inexperienced (SI) and five adult, sexually experienced (SE) Saanen × Hair goat crossbred bucks were used in this study. Bucks were individually exposed to three estrus does for 15-min periods during four sexual performance tests, which were carried out every other day to determine some sexual behavior traits such as flehmen response, reaction time, and ejaculation efficiency. Sexually inexperienced young bucks were evaluated based on their sexual activity (active (AC) vs inactive (IA)) and presence of horn. It was found that AC bucks had significantly higher serum testosterone concentrations (31.5 vs 21.5 ng/mL) and weight loss (114.2 vs 51.2 g/day) than IA bucks. In addition, weight loss was significantly correlated with ejaculation efficiency in young bucks. On the other hand, horned bucks tended to have higher ejaculation efficiency with significantly longer reaction time than polled bucks. For experience (age) classes, SE bucks had higher testosterone concentration (76.0 vs 31.5 ng/mL) and weight loss (16.7 vs 8.6%) than SI active young bucks. However, the effect of experience on other sexual performance traits was found to be limited. Overall, these results indicate that testosterone concentration may affect sexual performance of young bucks in the mating season. Age-related sexual experience is not a determining factor for sexual performance in bucks. However, sexual performance data alone may not reflect reproductive outcomes without semen data.

Exogenous oxytocin administration improves the testicular blood flow in rams

“…Practitioners used to conduct a general physical examination, scrotal circumference estimation and semen analysis to determine the reproductive soundness in male farm animals (Karaca et al., 2016; Kridli et al., 2007). Recently, the application of pulsed wave Doppler ultrasonography has become a useful noninvasive practice to assess the reproductive performance in male animals through the analysis of the blood flow dynamics within the testicular artery (Hedia & El‐Belely, 2021; Samir et al., 2015; Velasco & Ruiz, 2021).…”

Melatonin Uygulanan Tekelerde Aşım Davranışları ve Hormon Profili

“…While hormone levels are known to significantly affect reproductive behavior in animals, courtship behavior can be an important indicator of libido in goats (Tölü and Savaş, 2010;Darwish and Mahboud, 2011;Karaca et al, 2016). Studies on reproductive performance, mating behavior and hormone levels of melatonin implants in dairy goat bucks are limited.…”

Detecting estrus in Canindé goats by two infrared thermography methods

“…The application of assisted reproductive technologies allows the development of the breeding performance, with the main objective of maximizing the reproductive potential of the female, intense use its biological potential to extrapolate its natural possibilities (KARACA et al, 2016). Several techniques increase the differential selection, as also accelerate the progress shortening the interval between generations (SOURI; MIRMAHMOUDI, 2014).…”